Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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DESCRIPTI_
T I T L E :
" PROCESS FOR COATING THE INNER WALL OF A FURNACE OR
LIKE APPARATUS ".
The present invention relates to furnaces compri-
sing normally walls provided on their inner face with
refractory or semi-refractory materials.
The maintenance of furnaces in which abrasive charges
are treated at medium or high temperature, as in the case
of vertical furnaces for lime, dolomite, fire-clay,
magnesia, etc., but also horizontal rotating cement and
other furnaces, and more particularly blast-furnaces,
requires the frequent repairing of their refractory
linings, owing to the extreme stresses to which they
are subjected.
In certain preferential wear zones, these linings
may be destroyed down to the sheet metal within a very
short period of time which is in any case less than the
life of the remainder of the masonry. Thus, in order to
avoid the excessively frequen' complete repairing of
these linings, many repairing methods have been proposed.
In a first process, the charge is completely or
partly emptied and a suitable refractory concrete is
projected pneumatically against the walls of the furnace
from inside the latter.
The drawbacks of such a process resides in the in-
terruption of the operation of the apparatus,the additional
consumption and handl.ing of treated material and also the
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difficulty of carrying out such an operation.
A second process comprises injecting mechanically,
pneumatically or in some other way, from outside the furnace and
by way of orifices formed for this purpose, a non-shaped refractory
mixture. It is hoped that this material, which adheres to the wall,
will form with the charge to a certain thickness a conglomerate
which is capable of protecting the wall during a period of time.
Generally, the duration of these deposits is short, which is easily
explained by the low resistance of their adhesion in the face of
the dragging forces due to the movement of the charge which are
applied to the heterogeneous excrescence obtained by this method.
More recently, there has been proposed a process which
comprises, in order to partly overcome the aforementioned drawback,
introducing in the furnace a relatively fluid product as above but
by spraying it against the wall by means of suitable devices. Such
a solution improves the quality of the connection with the wall but
does not eliminate the drawback of trapping the components of the
charge and only achieves an unreliable distribution of the treating
product. Moreover, the necessity of using a more fluid mixture
compromises the rapid setting of the application, above all when
the available heat potential is low.
An object of the invention is to overcome the drawbacks
of the various known processes examined hereinbefore.
The invention provides a process for the maintenance,
repairing or reconstitution of the refractory lining of a wall of
a furnace or like apparatus, comprising injecting between the
refractory lining and the charge contained in the furnace a protect-
ing product, wherein there is first injected through at least one
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73~
orifice in the furnace wall a first product adapted to constitute
an intermediate layer between a charge contained in the furnace
and the protecting product, and then there is injected through said
orifice, after a sufficient period of time, the protecting product
proper between said intermediate layer and the wall of the furnace,
said protecting product adhering to the wall and setting to form a
repaired portion.
Advantage is taken in the second stage of the compres-
sibility of the charge so that the lining product pushes the charge
a sufficient distance away from the wall and occupies the gap thus
formed.
The invention will now be described in more detail here-
inafter with reference to the accompanying drawing which is given
by way of example and in which the single Figure is a diagram
illustrating the process according to the invention.
There is shown on this drawing an element of a wall of a
furnace, which may for example be a blast-furnace, comprising an
outer metal case 1 provided with a refractory lining 2 which may
have completely disappeared, as shown, in a zone 2a. Orifices 3
are formed in this wall so as to permit the injection of the treat-
ing product. Located inside the furnace is a charge 4 whose nature
depends of course on the use to which the considered furnace is put.
According to the invention, the procedure is the follow-
ing for the purpose of protecting, maintaining or reconstituting
the lining of the furnace:
First of all, there is effected by way of the orifices
- 3 -
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3 by means of a suitable mechanical,pneumatic or other
device, the injection of a first product 5 which is adap-
ted to fill progressively while it is being introduced,
the porosities of the charge in the vicinity of the wall
so as to act subsequently as a form on the inner side of
the furnace when the final lining product is placed ir
position.
This first product may of course be of a very varia-
ble composition,depending on the conditions of application.
It preferably comprises a thermosetting binder so as to
take advantage of the temperature of the charge
which may be hydraulic~mineral~ organic, argillaceous
or some other charge.
This ccmposition is usually cheap, since it is neither
necessary nor desirable that it possess high mechanical
properties.
By way of a non-limitative example, there may be
applied by means of a pneumatic spraying machine provided
~ith a nozzle 6,shown in the Figure, a hydraulic mortar
0 having the following compsotion :
Particle size 0.2 mm 600 to 900 kg
Portland or alumina cement loo to 400 kg
for a metric ton of the mixture.
The particles .-nay be of very varied nature and chosen
in accordance with the local conditions and possible
availability : fire-clay, expanded clay, siliceous sand,
crushed brick waste, etc.. but may also be taken from the
components of the charge itself, such as, for a blast
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furnace : particulate slag, ore, or agglomerates. In
any case, the particle size of the mixture is so chosen
that it can be easily conveyed pneumatically and
provides a sufficiently compact structure after setting.
Moreover, the pneumatic spraying has two
marked advantages. First, it permits propelling at a
sufficient distance from the point of introduction a
product containing very little liquid, namely the minimum
required for the setting. Secondly, at least in the case
where the charge comprises a combustible element such as
coke, the conveyin~ air produces a local combustion which
gives off an amount of heat which facilitates the following
operations.
When a sufficient period of time has elapsed to
ensure that the zone of the interface between the furnace
wall and the charge has assumed a sufficient temperature
and/or that the injected product has become sufficiently
set, the injection proper of the second product 7 can
be carried ou~ which requires the introduction thereof
under pressure.
This second product is a mortar preferably having a
relative high viscosity and setting at a temperature which
is appropriate to the local conditions and having a power
of adhesion to the furnace wall which is as high as
possible.
Under the erfect of the pressure,of the order of 2 to
10 bars, provided by the injecting means, which may be for
example a pump, this mortar slips between the existing
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wall and the coated charge and urges the latter back a
distance equal to the t~ickness of the mortar placed in
position, this distance being a function of the amount of
mortar introduced by way of each orifice 3.
As long as this mortar remains fluid, the pressure
applying force is sufficient to achieve the necessary
displacement of the charge coated with the layer 5 for
an effective pressure within the furnace which does not
stress the sheet metal more than in normal operation.
A charge which has hollows and is slightly compact
has a compressibility which is quite sufficient in the
considered process (at the most a few %).
By way of example, a final mortar may be employed
which has the following composition :
Mineral charge (refractory) 40 to 75% by weight
Ceramic binder (clay +
additives) 5 to 30 ~ by weight
Carbonaceous charge (tar + pitch) 10 to 30 % by weight
Organic binder (resins) 10 to 40 ~ by weight
The mineral charge may be formed by any refractory or
semi-refractory material and in particular fire-clay
targillaceous with a high or very high content of alumina),
oorundum, silica, silicon carbide, calcinated anthracite,
graphite, magnesia, etc... The resins axe preferably of
the phenolic type.
This type of mortar has the advantage of being of rea-
sonable price and capable of being adjusted as concerns
viscosity by modifying the relative proportions of tar and
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resins relative to the charge in accordance with the
local conditions.
Further, the setting time may be shortened by adding
to the resin polymerization accelerators and the nature
of the final ceramic bond may be affected by the
introduction of ceramic-forming agents.
The process just described permits the obtainment
upon each elementary injecting operation, a substantially
uniform and homogeneous distribution of the final mortar
on the inner face of the furnace thus treated.
The area covered for a thic~n2ss which varies in
accordance with the adjustment of the various parameters
and above all of the amount of product injected, may
be as much as 5 square metres and more on a roughly planar
surface. In practice, it is however of interest to treat
smaller areas by bringing the orifices 3 as close together
as possible. In this case, the good circulation of the fi-
nal mortar may be often verified by its appearance in the
region of the orificesnext to that in the course of use.
This facility of circulation also permits the treatment
of surfaces having excrescences, such as cooling boxes
for example.
The aforementioned layer, which will preferably have
a thickness of 5 to 10 cm,firmly adheres to the treated
wall and its behaviour in service, measured by the rate at
which it wears, is amply sufficient for the needs in
practice, especially after ceramic formation has oc~ed on
all or a part of the total thickness. This good behaviour
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is also due to the good adherence to the wall of the final
mortar which is due in a large part to the pressure under
which it was placed in position.
It will be observed that this process is of use in
all furnaces which contain a charge to be treated. Thus,
by way of a non-limitative example, the process is applica-
ble to a rotating horizontal furnace of the cement furnace
type if care is taken to carry out the operation in
succession on each fraction of the periphery of the furnace
covered by the charge when the furnace is stationary.
It must be understood that many modifications may be
made in the process described hereinbefore in accordance
with the nature of the refractory lining of the furnace,
the treated charge, the temperature of utilization in the
various zones or levels of the furnace.
